


Moment

by orphan_account



Category: Dead Poets Society (1989)
Genre: Bonding, Comfort, Emotional, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene, Nuwanda, Oneshot, Pain, Short, friends - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-31
Updated: 2014-07-31
Packaged: 2018-02-11 05:05:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2054718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Charlie's punishment, Neil attempts to comfort him. Very short 'missing scene'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moment

Neil gave Charlie twenty minutes before slipping into his room. The boy was lying flat on his stomach on his bed, his face pressed hard into his pillow, while the emptiness of the other bed just served to emphasise Charlie's physical loneliness. After checking that no one had seen him enter the room, he gently shut it behind him.

“Nuwanda?”

Neil heard a stifled noise from the pillow, which could have been a laugh or a sob, before Charlie rolled onto his side to face him, grunting as his behind came into contact with the solid bed. The boy's eyes were red-rimmed and watery, while his face was pale and appeared greasy. In short, he was a wreck.

“Neil.”

Neither boy spoke for a moment, leaving Neil to sit on the empty bed across from Charlie's thin figure to fill the moment.

“Are you okay?” Neil asked, and then instantly regretted it. Before that day, he had seen Charlie cry once and once only, when he broke his arm during soccer four years previously. If he had been crying for twenty whole minutes, he obviously was not okay.

“I don't regret it.” was Charlie's response, accompanied by a watery, false grin which looked quite alarming in his washed-out face. “I mean, sitting up is a problem, and Nolan is on our case, but I don't regret it.”

Grinning himself, Neil stood back up again, giving Charlie's arm an awkward rub as he did so. “You're an idiot, Charlie.”

A moment of silence passed before Charlie replied, “You think I don't already know that?”

“Well, you _do_ have to spent twenty-four hours a day with yourself, I guess you must have a pretty good idea of what's missing from your brain. I feel kinda sorry for you.”

At this, Charlie smiled widely, genuine amusement on his face. “Better than spending twenty-four hours a day in Knox's head. Or Captain's – I mean, Christ, he's a great teacher and all, but his head must be a pit.”

Neil gave an affirming nod, before starting towards the door. Just as his hand reached the knob and began to turn it, he heard Charlie call,

“Neil?”

Turning, he replied, “Yeah?”

“Don't tell the other guys that you came here. I just...I need some time.”

With a twisted half-smile, Neil nodded.

 


End file.
